Valley View sale may need 11 votes

Thursday

Oct 11, 2012 at 2:00 AM

MIDDLETOWN — Orange County Executive Ed Diana believes he has found a way to bypass the 14-vote threshold that has thwarted his push to get lawmakers to sell the Valley View Center for Nursing Care and Rehabilitation to a private operator.

CHRIS MCKENNA

MIDDLETOWN — Orange County Executive Ed Diana believes he has found a way to bypass the 14-vote threshold that has thwarted his push to get lawmakers to sell the Valley View Center for Nursing Care and Rehabilitation to a private operator.

Diana told the Times Herald-Record Wednesday that he and his staff have concluded that the 21-member Legislature could approve the sale with a simple majority of 11 by following the example of Suffolk County lawmakers, who voted 10-7 last month to sell that county's nursing home after a four-year fight over its future.

He didn't discuss the legal reasoning in detail, but said it would be explained in upcoming legislative meetings and resembled the way the county bought the former Camp La Guardia homeless shelter and surrounding property from New York City in 2007.

"We have precedent in the county here for doing something similar as well," he said.

That interpretation, voiced for the first time in an editorial board meeting that stretched nearly three hours, could reshuffle the ongoing political calculations as lawmakers consider the latest ultimatum Diana has given them with his 2013 budget, which would fund Valley View only for January.

The assumption until now has been that Diana didn't have enough support to sell Valley View, since all eight Democratic lawmakers and a Republican are opposed, and the county charter requires a two-thirds majority to approve property transactions. No vote has been taken on the four sale offers the county got in May.

In his discussion with the Record, Diana rebuked the unified Democratic opposition.

"How can eight be locked?" he asked. "And they are, and that's OK. Now, will that change going on? I don't know. We'll find out, I guess."

The next step in the year-long drama will take place next week, when the Legislature's Health and Mental Health Committee is set to take up Diana's Valley View budget and decide whether to amend it.

Diana, who has vowed to veto any additional funding for the nursing home, warned Wednesday that the county will lay off employees in other departments if lawmakers override his veto. He contends subsidizing Valley View for a full year would drain the county's surplus and thereby endanger its bond rating.

He did concede that, based on his own figures and argument, such a move would require $12.5 million in surplus funds, not the $20 million he said in his budget speech this month. His proposal already included $7.5 million in county funds for Valley View.

Diana said would he would file a contingency plan for closing Valley View with the state Department of Health by Thursday, as he previously said he would do by the end of last week. He casts closing the facility as a last resort if lawmakers refuse to sell it.

Addressing a heated subplot in the Valley View debate, Diana said the owner of the business that runs the facility has indicated he won't exercise the right of first refusal in the company's contract. That controversial clause would allow Orange Administrative Services to commandeer any sale offer the Legislature approves.

Diana said he asked the owner, John Chobor, "and he said he doesn't want to buy the nursing home."

The Republican defended his refusal to testify under oath this summer before a special legislative committee that subpoenaed him to answer question about Valley View. He complained that some panel members were biased and that the panel rebuffed his offer to answer questions in a less confrontational manner, as he and his department heads normally do in committee meetings.

He bristled at the notion that lawmakers had been deceived about Valley View's finances.

Diana touched only briefly on his latest plans for the closed Government Center, the other issue preoccupying county government. He said he expects to present a proposal costing slightly more than $60 million to renovate and reopen the court section and demolish and replace the rest of the 42-year-old complex, which housed administrative offices, public records rooms and a Department of Motor Vehicles site.

The new section would be about 100,000 square feet, Diana said. He hedged on when he would present his proposal, saying he doesn't want the building debate to interfere with resolving the fate of Valley View.